The Cosmic Calendar

From Nicholas Alchin, Theory of Knowledge, pg. 4-5

Suppose you took the whole history of the Universe and compressed it into one year
(based on our current estimates that the Universe is 15 billion years old; that the Earth
is 4.55 billion years old; that humans developed around 2 million years ago. These
figures are controversial and almost certainly wrong, but we dont know by how much!
So take this example in the spirit in which it is meant.)
So now it is 12:00 pm on January 1st. The Universe began exactly one year ago. How
long would we have been around for? Lets examine the cosmic calendar.
Current theory suggests that our galaxy formed on May 1 st. It took another four
months, to September 9th, until our solar system appeared. A few days later, the Earth
was formed, around September 14th. After life begins on September 25th, it may seem
like things are speeding up, but it then takes until November 12 th for the oldest
photosynthetic plants to develop, and it isnt until December 1 st that there is a
significant quantity of oxygen in the atmosphere. So for the first eight and a half
months, there was no Earth, and even then for another two and a half months there
was no conceivable way for humans, had they been around, to survive. But at least
now we are beginning to approach human history.
Although there was oxygen in the atmosphere, fish did not develop until December
19th; trees followed soon after on 23 December, and the first dinosaurs turned up on
December 24th. Mammals arrived on December 26th, and had to live with the dinosaurs
until December 28th when it seems that a massive comet struck the Earth, causing
major climatic change. The dinosaurs, unable to cope with this, died out, and the age
of the mammals started. Humans appeared on December 31 st. All of human history,
therefore, happened on the last day of the year. Well, at least we have a day
(remember that the dinosaurs had four!). Or, do we?
In fact, probably not. Humans developed rather late in the day, around 10:50 p.m.
Current belief is that Peking Man first used fire in a controlled way at 11:46 p.m., and
at 11:59 p.m. cave paintings started being created in Europe. Things happen in a rush
now, with agriculture transforming the human way of life at 11:59:20, and the
alphabet allowing detailed communication through generations with nine seconds left
in the year. The modern calendar began at the 11:59:56 with the birth of Christ. The
great Mayan civilizations and Chinese Sung Dynasty came and went at 11:59:58, and
with one second remaining in the day, the modern technological world was born with
the Renaissance and Scientific and Industrial Revolutions.
On the cosmic scale, therefore, it is only in the last fraction of a second, on the last
day in the entire year that anyone alive today has existed, that you were born.
Reflection Questions
1. What is humanitys place in the Universe? How likely is it that humans have found
out any of the profound truths about the Universe?
2. What are humankinds greatest successes? Failures?
3. Arent human beings terribly egotistical to think that we really know anything?